


Outside

by ChokolatteJedi



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Challenge Response, Community: stargateland, Gen, Season/Series 03
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-24
Updated: 2011-04-24
Packaged: 2017-10-18 14:17:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/189747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChokolatteJedi/pseuds/ChokolatteJedi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She retreats outside for some peace of mind. Written for the stargateland Multi-Media Bingo challenge with the prompt, "outside."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Outside

She feels the need to be outside, occasionally - to see the sky and feel the wind and smell the ocean air, to feel the sun or moonlight on her skin, and to reconnect with the planet outside the alien walls of the city. She doesn't get to go on missions, like the military units do, or on scientific trips to the mainland as most of the civilians do. No, she, the leader, is relegated to a desk and an office and a gateroom and a small, safe, portion of the city.

She never says anything - leaders must be strong at all times - but every time she sneaks out onto one of the lesser-used balconies, it isn't long before John or Carson, or sometimes Teyla come find her.

Carson sits beside her and begins to talk - idle chatter about the ocean around Scottland or the weather in Colorado or how nice it is to be out of the Antarctic cold. Mindless conversation about the weather and the view doesn't sound like a lot, but it helps to ground her, to remind her of an outside - a home - far from this alien place.

When John comes, he leans silently against the rail, providing quiet moral support until she is willing to look over at him. One of them will cock an eyebrow, and the other will recount the latest escapade of Rodney or Kavanaugh or one of the other scientists. No one would have ever suspected, and no one will ever hear it from her, but John is a closet gossip. Inevitably their conversations turn to the latest relationship budding in the city, and what the odds are on it lasting. He brings a human element that she sometimes loses, staring at names on a screen for so long.

Teyla also says nothing at first, choosing to sit in the corner in one of her meditation poses, as though she just happened to pick the same deck on which to find a little piece of mind. She finds herself copying the deep, calming breathing of the Athosian woman, and falls into her own form of meditation. Religion is hard to maintain after being exposed to the Stargate, but spirituality often replaces it, and they connect to theirs - different and yet similar - while breathing in time with the crashing waves.

Eventually, the lure of the outside isn't enough to combat the reminder of paperwork or inspections or meetings, and she must retreat inside, but that little glimpse of the sky is enough to hold her, to keep her firmly Elizabeth, for a little longer.


End file.
